Global-warming advocacy reeks of hypocrisy, from Al Gore’s 10,000-square foot home to rock stars’ predilection for private jets to Senator Reid’s daily Chevy Suburban SUV. Washington Post auto/business writer – and African-American – Warren Brown takes his own newspaper to task for its two-faced coverage of Hummer terrorism in D.C. this month:
What is it with the media when it comes to sport-utility vehicles? Let me rephrase the question: What is it with the liberal media when it comes to SUVs?
Consider The Washington Post’s headline on the story: “Hummer Owner Gets Angry Message: Vandals Batter D.C. Man’s SUV, Slash Its Tires and Scratch In an Echo Note.” Think about that. A serious crime against personal property was committed. It was a hate crime. But because it was a hate crime against a hated SUV, there’s a headline that equates the crime to nothing more than delivering an angry message.
What if that Hummer H2 SUT Crew Cab had been a church, synagogue or mosque? Headline: “Congregation Gets Angry Message: Vandals Break Windows, Slash Pews and Carve In an Anti-Religious Note.” That would have been sufficient? That would have been fair?
There was little sympathy shown for victim Gareth Groves in any of the stories . . . .What matters here is that two brave bat-and-knife wielding souls, wearing masks to conceal their identity, had the gumption to teach Groves a lesson, to send him an ‘angry message’ that his big truck was not wanted on that narrow, leafy street in Northwest Washington where Toyota Prius cars and Volvos are the norm.
As a black child of the once-segregated South, I am familiar with receiving such angry messages. A black family would move into a formerly all-white neighborhood with narrow, leafy streets, and a few of the residents of those streets would take it upon themselves to send that black family an angry message — maybe by putting a few bricks through windows, spray-painting the house with hateful invective, or burning it down. Help me out here: Was that vandalism or racial terrorism?
What if the scene had been a row of arson-torched houses in that upscale neighborhood, or a bunch of crushed and short-circuited Toyota Prius gas-electric cars? Would the media have been so sanguine?What occurred on Brandywine Street was a vicious crime. It was violent attack on property rights. It was a violent attack on freedom, no different from any other terrorist attack on freedom. It represents a threat to all of us, Hummer lovers and haters.